House of Wolves
by xReadItAndWeepx
Summary: AU. Sora has a secret that forced her to stop being friends with Taichi. When they're forced together again for school, Taichi will do anything to find out the secret she'd die to keep. Then they fall in love and everything gets even more complicated.
1. Then and Now

**Disclaimer: **I don't own _Digimon _or it's characters.

**Author's Notes: **This is an AU Taiora with Mimato on the side and possibly other couples. Please read and review; constructive criticism accepted.

**Playlist: **_"Thunder," Boys Like Girls_

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_Chapter 1. Then and Now_

"_You're birthday's coming up, Sky. What do you want?"_

_Twelve-soon to be thirteen-year old Takenouchi Sora opened her ruby colored eyes and turned on her side to be face to face with her best friend, Yagami Taichi. Before his question, the two young friends had been lying under a tree enjoying the sun; they had been in a comfortable silence for so long that Sora had nearly fallen asleep._

"_I don't know. You don't have to get me anything big, Tai."_

"_Your soccer ball popped yesterday, right? I could get you a new one…"_

_She shrugged. "If you want."_

_She shut her eyes once again and began to drift off to sleep; this was something that was starting to become a regular occurrence for Sora. As her birthday got closer, she became more and more pale and tired, so much so that Taichi worried that she had come down with something. _

_Which was ridiculous considering that she had never felt better in her entire life (aside from the recent lethargy). _

_She was pulled out of slumber when Taichi suddenly poked her hard in the shoulder. Irritated, she glared up at his smiling face. _

_He asked her, "Sky, we're going to be friends forever right?"_

_Her glare softened. "Of course we will."_

"_Promise?"_

"_I promise."_

* * *

His wolf was outside his window again.

Seventeen-year-old Yagami Taichi stared down at his backyard, which was not that far away from the woods which surrounded his town of Odaiba, to see a wolf with rich red fur. He thought his wolf was female since he looked wolves up on his computer and she seemed to be the size of a female wolf.

His wolf looked up at him and he smiled.

For a couple years now, this particular wolf had followed him around at times. He would look out his window to see her or catch a glimpse at her when he walked home from school and soccer practice. The wolf comforted him somehow instead of scaring him so he had stared thinking of her as being his.

His wolf cocked her head to the side as though she heard something and ran off into the woods. He waved at her retreating back in farewell.

* * *

Taichi sighed as he leaned back into a booth in the dinner he worked part-time at. It had been a slow night so far and he spent it mostly sitting in his booth memorizing the new play his soccer coach had come up with, and then after that he took out his PSP and started playing games on it.

He grinned as he killed some more zombies in his game.

He loved when he could earn his wage without really doing anything.

Then the bell over the door that signaled new costumers chimed, he looked over, and groaned as he recognized both the customers and the fact that they sat in his section. He looked down at his video game longingly for a moment before grabbing some menus and putting his best fake smile on.

Of all the kids from school who could have come in, why did it have to be Tachikawa Mimi, Ishida Yamato, and Takenouchi Sora?

Tachikawa Mimi was considered the most beautiful girl in school with her long, wavy honey hair, heart shaped face, hazel eyes, soft pink lips, lithe build, and creamy skin. She was known for her easy smile, sense of humor, and the Gatsby like parties she threw every so often. Taichi had nothing against her and in fact liked her very much (but in a platonic way rather than the lustful one most boys at school had for her), but it was her two companions that he had problems with.

Ishida Yamato was probably the object of desire for most of the girls at school (despite the fact that he and Mimi had been dating for nearly three years). He was tall with shoulder length blond hair, deep blue eyes, high cheek boned face, and lean muscled build; he was also the lead singer of a rock band called the Teenage wolves which made him even more popular with the girls.

And Taichi had never gotten along with him.

He didn't even really know how their antagonism had begun. Before high school had started they weren't exactly friends but they hadn't hated each other either. Then Takenouchi Sora had stopped being friends with him and had become both Tachikawa and Ishida's new best friend.

He figured that could have been the reason but then he had no problems with Mimi. But that was because Mimi didn't glare at him coldly whenever he had tried to approach Sora…

His former best friend had become beautiful, nearly as beautiful as Mimi in fact. She was tall and lean from soccer with sun-kissed skin, just above shoulder length auburn hair, oval face, and ruby eyes. As he watched, she nervously twirled a strand of hair around her finger.

He found the movement oddly fascinating for some reason.

She stopped when he approached their table and avoided eye contact with him; Yamato starred at him impassively and Mimi beamed up at him. He took their orders and tried to get away from them as quickly as he could but he wasn't fast enough.

Sora had taken her eyes off the table and called to him tentatively, "Yagami." He turned to her and she smiled hesitantly, "Good game yesterday."

He nodded and she looked down once more.

Yamato stared pointedly at him.

"Pack kids," he muttered under his breath.

* * *

There were two kinds of students in Odaiba High. The first group, the larger of the two, was made up of the teenagers who lived in the actual town of Odaiba. They weren't rich or poor, but somewhere in the middle of the two, and usually they belonged to the normal or outcast crowds. A few were popular, most were excellent students hoping for scholarships from far away colleges, and some, like Yagami Taichi, were jocks.

Then there was the second group that made up less than half of the school: the students who lived just outside of town near the lake. All of them were rich, gorgeous, and immensely popular. They kept to themselves for the most part and the town kids had taken to calling them the Pack.

The Pack could get away with anything both in school and in town which Taichi considered horribly unfair; the year earlier he had gotten detention for fighting one of the Pack kids (the punk had insulted his little sister and Taichi could not take that lying down) while the kid got off Scot free.

Needless to say, Taichi hated the Pack kids.

Even Takenouchi Sora.

He felt the familiar bubble of pain, sadness, and anger as her face rose in his mind. She had promised to be his best friend forever and then a few months after her fourteenth birthday she had gotten sick and missed nearly two weeks from school.

Then when she came back to school after being unwell she had completely changed. She no longer had time for him and instead hung out with the Pack, especially with Tachikawa and Ishida. He felt sick at the thought especially when he remembered her saying once that even though she lived in the area the kids in the Pack lived she never wanted to be like them.

He sighed; even though he was mad as hell at Sora, he had to admit he missed her.

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Her old best friend had become handsome.

True, his curly brown hair still stuck up in different directions but it made him look roughish. His skin was just as sun-kissed as hers, if not more, because he also played soccer and his face had lost its baby fat completely. He had become tall and muscular at well.

He was no longer the clumsy boy he had once been.

God, she missed him so much.

But she had to stay away from him to protect him. She was like poison and would ruin his life if she got to close to him. Tears pricked behind her eyes at the thought of him and she blinked them away.

Mimi smiled at her sympathetically and Yamato gave her a quick platonic hug.

They understood because they were in the same situation as her; she smiled at them because they would always be there for her, especially when it came to Taichi (she knew Yamato didn't like her old friend because just the thought of Taichi gave her so much pain).

Sora sighed.

Taichi was better off with her out of his life.

And she intended to keep it that way.


	2. Why Me

**Disclaimer: **I don't own _Digimon _or its characters.

**Author's Notes: **I'd like to give a big thank-you to all my reviewers. You all seem to really support and enjoy this fan fiction, which just makes me smile. Thank you.

**Playlist: **_"Ghost of You," My Chemical Romance _

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_Chapter Two. Why Me?_

Taichi stayed home from school on Monday, because it was the anniversary of his sister's death.

Exactly a year ago fourteen year old Yagami Hikari was rushed from home to the hospital after experiencing a series of convulsions; she had been sick the entire week before this episode with a high fever, hallucinations, and entire body aches. The day before she had succumbed to the illness she had become extremely lethargic, pale, and withdrawn.

At the time, her symptoms had reminded him of Sora when she had been seriously ill in their first year of high school.

He had been in class at the time of his sister's demise and could recall in horrific detail being called to the principal's office. He had been afraid because he and some friends from the soccer team had set all the frogs in the biology lab free as a prank and he thought the principal had found out and was going to suspend him; he had expected to find the principal furious not somber and empathetic.

"_Your mother just called from the hospital, Yagami. It seems that your sister, Hikari, has…passed away."_

It had been like the earth had been pulled out from under him.

He had sunk into a chair across from the principal's desk but he could not remember even sitting down; the principal had been speaking to him but there had been a great rushing sound in his ears blocking the words and his gaze had been unfocused but without tears. The tears would come later when he was alone in his room and the reality of never seeing Hikari again had hit him.

He had not left his room until dinner (so he could be sure his weeping jag was done and over; his mother would already be upset enough about Hikari and he didn't want to add to her pain). The dinner that night had been silent and tense, both his and his mother's thoughts had been elsewhere, and he had wanted just to bolt back up to his room when he had finished.

But he had been brought to a screeching halt when his mother had said he had been delivered flowers. The boguet was a mix of blood red roses and white, scarlet, and yellow zinnias; the attached card had simply said, _"I'm sorry for your loss," _and was unsigned.

He thought it had been from Sora.

The message had been written in a neat, tiny script that he knew his former best friend wrote in. His suspicions were further driven home when he looked up zinnias that night and discovered that mixed zinnias meant thoughts of an absent friend. But there was no way to tell for sure since Sora acted just as distant to him as she had before Hikari's death.

He guessed it didn't really matter in the end.

It's not like the answer would bring his sister back to life.

* * *

He was still in his room hours later when his mother came back from work (she was almost always had work nowadays) and found him there. She sat next to him on his bed and ran a hand over his hair comfortingly.

Yagami Yuuko was an attractive woman in her mid-forties with long, dark hair, tan skin, brown eyes, and lean build. However, there was always an aura of sadness around her; her smiles hardly ever reached her eyes and her face held some premature lines from worry.

His mother was a woman who went through a lot of tragedy in her life. First, her family who lived up near the lake had disowned her after she had married his father. Then when he and Hikari had been young their father had died in a weird situation; he had been found torn limb from limb by what appeared to be wild animals which had completely baffled the police in town. And finally, when it seemed that her life could not become any more tragic, her only daughter had died.

He figured that she had taken Hikari's death far more badly than he had but she kept her pain all to herself.

"Would you like dinner soon?"

He nodded.

"Get changed out of your pajamas then. I don't feel like cooking tonight so we'll just go out to eat."

He went to the bathroom and quickly pulled on a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt. When he got back to his room, he found his mother glaring at the window into the background. He quietly stood next to her to find his wolf staring up with an almost defiant air about her..

His mother muttered, "Go away. He doesn't need you."

His wolf only appeared more defiant as though she had heard his mother's near whisper. He glanced between woman and wolf before laying a hand on his mother's shoulder; she jumped at the unexpected contact and flushed as though she was embarresed at being caught talking to a wolf by her son.

The two left soon after (with him waving goodbye to his wolf before leaving the house cuasing Yuuko to clench her teeth). He fully expected the animal to be gone long before he got back home.

He was wrong.

In fact his wolf spent the whole night outside his window.

* * *

English class was hell the next day.

He had come in late (which was completely not his fault; his alarm clock did not go off) and the teacher glared at him as he collapsed into his seat, tired and sweaty from running the entire way to school. But before she could make a disparaging comment about him, Takenouchi Sora strolled into the class.

Sora was much more dishevled looking than normal. Her hair had that messy just rolled out of bed quality, her clothes were wrinkled, and she had dark bags under her eyes that she had attempted to disguise with make-up. Her apperance suggested that she had been up all night.

Taichi could feel his blood boil when the teacher just smiled at Sora and gently reprimanded her for being late. Those damn Pack kids had every teacher in the school wrapped around their little fingers.

Sora brushed past his desk, not even glancing in his direction once, and took her seat directly behind him. He was debating over making a sarcastic comment to her (he was still mad that she got out of trouble so fast) when their teacher broke his chain of thought.

"Mr. Yagami, , since you were both absent yesterday when partners for the class project were picked, you two will be working together."

Taichi raised a hand and asked, "What project?"

The woman rolled her eyes. "Mr. Yagami do you listen to anything I say?" He just stared blankly at her and she rolled her eyes for a second time. "You and Ms. Takenouchi will memorize and act out in class a scene from one of Shakespeare's plays. You will be graded on how well you perform."

She picked up a list from her desk, glanced at it, and announced, "And your scene will be the crypt scene from _Rome and Juliet._"

Taichi felt himself pale and he couldn't stop a grimace from appearing on his face.

He would have to kiss Takenouchi Sora in front of the class.

And judging from the sharp intake of breath from the girl behind him, Sora was every bit as horrified as he was.


	3. Everything Is Worse Until It Gets Better

**Disclaimer**: I don't own _Digimon _or anything you remotely reconize.

**Author's Notes: **I have to apologize for the long wait between the last chapters and this one. I had some minor writer's block on this story which was not helped by college work and mid-terms. Hopefully, I will be able to get the next chapter of the story out much faster. Thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter.

**Playlist: **_"When It Rains," Paramore (Taichi)_, _"Black Hole Sun," Soundgarden (Sora)_

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_Chapter 3. Everything is Worse Until It Gets Better_

_Mondays, decided fourteen year old Taichi as he truded to school in the rain, should just die. _

_He had three quizes that day and, on top of that, he had to turn in his first draft of an essay on a Midsummer Night's Dream (he thought his draft was crappy due to his complete dislike of the works of Shakespeare). The rain meant that he couldn't play a quick game of soccer with his friends during free period that day, or the next probably,since the meterologist on the News that morning had predicted rain until Thursday. And Sora was still home from school; his scowl, if it was humanly possible, deepened at the thought of his absent best friend. _

_It wasn't just the fact that Sora had been out of school for almost two weeks because of some kind of illness. He had called and e-mailed her numerous time but she would never answer any of his attempts at contact. At one point, he had gone to her home up near the lake to see her, only to be told by her mother that she was very sick and couldn't have visitors. He could understand her not being able to talk to him in person but he didn't get why she couldn't just pick up a phone or reply to an e-mail. _

_If he didn't know any better, he could have sworn that Sora was avoiding him. _

_But she would never do that to him. _

_His deep belief in the strength of their friendship was momentairly shaken when he pushed back the doors to the school and found Sora sitting in the hallway between Tacihikawa Mimi and Ishida Yamato. Taichi could feel his jaw drop to the floor not only because Sora was back in school and didn't tell him, but because she was sitting with the ring-leaders of the Pack kids. Despite living in the same neighborhood as the Pack, Sora hated those snobby, priveleged kids about as much as he did. It just didn't make any sense. _

_Maybe Sora was still sick. _

_But as he approached her he noticed that she looked better than she had in awhile; her hair seemed to have more of a shine, she was tanner than he remembered her being only a few weeks ago, and she seemed more grown-up to him in some way now. Her expression remained neutral as he reached her and he could feel himself start to become nervous. _

_Before he could speak Sora, along with Tachikawa and Ishida, rose and she nodded cooly at him._

_"Yagami," she greeted without any familarity or warmth in her tone. "Nice to see you."_

_Then she turned on her heel and porposefully walked away from him, never once looking back. Ishida glared at him coldly before stalking off after Sora, and Tachikawa looked at him with an expression that could have been either pity or concern or both before hastily following after her friends. _

_Taichi felt his heart break._

* * *

Taichi was still in a bad mood during lunch, even though English class had long since been over.

It had been bad enough that he had to do some romantic scene with Takenouchi, the last girl in school that he would ever pick, but insult had been added to injury when she stopped him before he could leave the classroom. She had regarded him cooly and spoke in an authoritarian voice, "After school. Your place." She had then brushed past him as though he wasn't even there. His face burned in rememberence of it; Takenouchi was nothing more than a Pack kid who thought everyone would bend to her wishes. He couldn't believe he was ever friends with her.

"Um, is something bothering you?" asked his friend Izumi Koushirou.

Koushirou was the opposite of Taichi in many ways. Where Taichi was athletic and tan, Koushirou was pale with short red hair and a thin, but mostly unathletic build. Taichi loved sports and being outdoors in general, where as Koushirou was content to sit inside and read or explore the Internet on his computer. And the diffrences just didn't stop there; Koushirou was much more patient than Taichi and less likely to act impulsively or under the influence of emotions. He was also a good listener and could anyalize problems and come up with solutions exceedingly well.

Normally, Taichi would have no problem confiding in his friend. However, this was diffrent as it considered a member of the Pack.

Koushirou was far too interested in the Pack.

Taichi couldn't blame him really considering Koushirou had only moved to Odaiba a couple of years ago and had been completely taken aback by the priveleged teenagers who made up the Pack. Apparnetly in his old town, no one was shown the level of defference the town showed to the resdients of the lake area. As Taichi glanced at the Pack table, at the very center of the room, if he had not lived in Odaiba all his life he might find it strange that Tachikawa sat like a queen with all the other members of the Pack (except Yamato and Sora) flocked around her like courtiers.

Or he probably would have just chalked it up to being a high school thing.

Unfortunately, Koushirou had noticed his gaze slip towards the Pack and asked, with some excitement in his tone, "Is it one of them?"

Taichi mentally groaned as his friend opened his laptop to take notes; when he first moved to Odaiba, Koushirou had been midly curious about the Pack but then Taichi had made the mistake of telling him an old town legend and his friend had just become obssessed. The legend went that back when Odaiba was founded the settlers had discovered to their horror that the area was already populated by monsterous wolves who could take on human form. To combat these monsters, the six original founding familes gathered together and performed a ritual that gave members of the family the power to turn into wolves themselves They defeated the meance but not all was well in Odaiba for one of the families became power hungry and were banished by the other five.

The Pack was made up of the desendents of five of the six original families.

But the whole story was complete bunk, Taichi thought. Humans couldn't turn into wolves, it was impossible. However, Koushirou, who had been raised with TV shows like the _X-Files_, wasn't so sure the whole shapeshifter legend had come out of someone's imagination. It was very open-minded of him and all but Taichi wasn't going to feed into his conspiracy theories.

"No," he muttered and Koushirou closed his laptop with a disapointed sigh.

It wasn't until the lunch period was over that he realized that Takenouchi had not been sitting at her lunch table.

* * *

Sora hated rain. It brought up too many painful memories.

She leaned back in the driver's seat of her car, a vintage blue Beetle, with her eyes closed listening to what Mimi like to call her "Emo music" mixed with the sound of the rain hitting the windows of her car. Morally, she knew she shouldn't skip class (and before joining the Pack she never would have) but realisticly she knew it was a victimless crime since she was a straight-A student and the teachers would never call her out on her absence. It already had been a horrible day, with her sleeping in and being late for first period, but the thought of having to go to Taichi's house later just completely killed any hope of the day improving.

She knew she had to go to his house. There was no way certain members of her neighborhood that would never let Taichi go to her house un-tormented.

But just the thought of being in his home was killing her. It held too many memories of their friendship for her to ever be comfortable in it again and now she had to rehearse lines from _Romeo and Juliet_ in it! She suddenly groaned as she realized that Taichi would have to kiss her in that particular scene.

Why did God hate her so?

She always had done the right thing even at the cost of her own happiness. Hadn't she ended her friendship with the boy she had been close to since pre-school just so he would be kept safe? Hadn't she experienced enough pain when she walked away from Taichi the first time to have to go through with it again? Could she even walk away from him again?

Her despondent thoughts were interupted by a tap on the passenger side window. She turned her head to see Mimi peering in at her; when Mimi realized that Sora saw her she made a hand gesture for Sora to unlock the door. A minute later a visibly grateful Mimi was sitting in the warm car and pushing wet strands of honey-colored hair out of her face. Sora waited patiently for her best friend to say something.

Mimi appraised her for a moment before saying quietly, "You know I love you right?"

Sora nodded.

"And you know I trust you with my life?"

She nodded again.

Mimi smiled softly but it didn't met her eyes. "I believe in you, Sora. I believe that you'll do the right thing because that's what you always do."

Sora could feel her bottom lip quivering. "But it's so hard. I don't know if I can be around him and not get attached."

"I know it's hard but it's what you have to do. He's not one of us."

She said nothing.

Mimi grabbed her arm and squeezed on it hard to get her attention. "Can you do this Sora? I need you to say that you won't get involved with him again." Her expression become agitated as Sora continued to not say anything. "Think of what would happen if some of the others found out that you became close to him again. He could be put in danger."

Sora nodded slowly. "I'll do it."

Mimi visibly relaxed. "Good. Remember Yama and I are always here for you if it gets to be too much."

"Right."

Her tone must have been sarcastic because her friend glared at her. "I think it's just as unfair as you do. But you know how important the rule is, not just for their safety but for ours. Our secret can't get out, Sora."

"...I know."

"Be careful."

"I will. Thanks."

It was just one of those days...

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**Author's Note: **Please read and review. Constructive critisim accepted.


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